2 months

Here we are at the 2-month mark already! Caleb now weighs 12 pounds and 4 ounces. He is growing very nicely! I’m happy, because this confirms that he is getting adequate quantity and quality of my milk (breastfeeding mothers tend to wonder).

In the past weeks, I've become a pro at going to the stores with him with the least amount of trouble. The easiest way to shop with the Little Precious is to transfer him to the sling, where he is the happiest little shopper, looking all around (or if he’s sleepy, he sleeps contentedly). We always get tons of comments about how cute he is, how much hair he’s got, etc. Lots of smiles, too. I guess people don’t see infants in sling carriers much, because I’ve gotten several surprised comments about what a nice contraption it is and how comfortable he looks in it. I’ve been using that thing so much that I decided to get an extra one, so now we have one for the house and one for the car. (And a Baby Björn for those upcoming hikes in the mountains!)

Caleb's grandparents and Aunt Jen visited us this weekend. They marveled at how much he has changed in the past 2 months. We had a really nice visit and perhaps Caleb will remember them this time. I know that his other grandparents and aunts also can’t wait to see him soon. He is changing so much now that it’s really exciting. He has begun to BELLY LAUGH in his sleep! It is the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard! His brain is practicing and I know that it is only a matter of weeks before he laughs and giggles when awake. (That’s what happened with the smile too.) I can’t wait!

I am now getting ready to apply for Caleb’s passport, so that he can travel to Europe with us in the summer. He will have changed a lot by then, but I guess his passport will be valid for the next 5 years as a child (as opposed to 10 years for an adult).

A day in the life...

I decided to record the events of a 24-hour day at 7 weeks of age for anyone who might be interested in how our days are spent and also for comparison’s sake a few months from now, as surely the structure of our days will be changing as Caleb grows. The day begins at 12 am midnight, because he’s still feeding around the clock.

12:30 am: Caleb is unusually alert for this time of day. He has just been given his bottle of formula for the day (after acting like he was starving, even after nursing) and is wide-awake, smiling and making eye contact. I find myself abandoning the article I’m reading on the computer for some communication with my son.

1 am: I decide that it’s time to settle down and go to bed, since he is normally asleep by now and I don’t want to upset his (somewhat loose) routine. I am also getting sleepy. So I head upstairs with him wide-awake, realizing that this may take a while tonight! Ron is already sleeping, so I try to keep Caleb as quiet as possible.

1:10 am: We are lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. I am not having any trouble nodding off, that is, but my dear son keeps squirming and fighting sleep. I alternately try holding the pacifier and my pinkie in his mouth, scooping him up in the bed and rocking him.

1:30ish am: He finally falls asleep while I hold the pacifier in his mouth. I don’t remember this exactly, because I am asleep myself.

4:30-5:00ish am: He stirs and I let him breastfeed. We both pass out after a very short time.

5:40 am: I hear Ron saying bye as he leaves for work.

7:00 am: Caleb wakes up again, hungry (he didn’t have much the last time). I nurse him and we nod back to sleep.

8:00ish am: Caleb is nursing again, but is very restless (he gets like this every morning; it’s a combination of being hungry but also half-asleep, so he can’t nurse effectively). So I decide it’s time to end his wrestling and get up for a good feeding (although I’m still sleepy - this has not been a great night of sleep). I breastfeed in his room on the glider, where I have my books set up for some morning reading/quiet time.

8:30 am: We come downstairs, I make coffee and sit down to read e-mail/news at the computer. Caleb continues to alternately sleep/breastfeed. I respond to a job request and get the job. (It’s an interesting one, requiring me to research Hungarian geopolitical terms.) I start working on it.

10:30 am: I decide to put a sleeping Caleb in his bouncy seat so I can get some things done. However, he does not stay asleep, as I had hoped. So I turn on the TV and place him in front of it in his bouncy seat (I know this is horrible – my 7 week old watching TV - but lately he’s been mesmerized by it). A Baby Story is on and I’m hoping for a good 15 minutes of time. I get about 10 before he starts fussing, just enough to fix myself a breakfast of eggs and toast and sterilize the artificial nipples.

10:55 am: He seems very hungry as I sit down to eat my breakfast and we eat together. He nurses vigorously. I answer some e-mails and do some work. I’ve made the mistake of not getting myself something to drink. Now I’m stuck. After nursing for almost an hour, he falls asleep.

12:00 pm: I carry him upstairs and decide to try laying him down in his crib while I shower. For the first time ever, he naps in his crib (so far, he’s only had a couple of “crib training” sessions of about 5-10 minutes when I’d put him in there awake, with me in the room, to get him used to the space). I run to get a shower and check on him. He’s still asleep. I throw in a load of laundry, and then check on him. He’s still asleep. I sort and put away a load of laundry. He’s still asleep! I get bold. I start cleaning his room, organizing his closet, bringing in the mail. I get ready to break out our baby monitor when I hear him waking. Oh well, I had a good run. :)

1:05 pm: We come downstairs and Caleb breastfeeds. I notice his nails are really long again. However, I do not have the baby nail clippers nearby, so cutting them will have to wait.

1:24 pm: He’s finished. I put him in the sling and we go out for a walk around the neighborhood. On the way back, I see our neighbor who’s just had a baby girl and congratulate them on their baby. They do the same.

2:01 pm: We get home. He is asleep in the sling. I make myself a quick lunch and sit down to eat.

2:20 pm: Caleb awakens and wants to nurse. He nurses for 20 minutes.

2:40 pm: Playtime with mommy (Caleb imitates my facial expressions, listens to me sing, and smiles a lot), tummy time for exercising his neck and arm muscles, and bouncy seat time, where he occupies himself for about 20 minutes (he’s been enjoying his bouncy seat in the past week; I think he has finally grown into it).

4:20 pm: Breastfeeds for an hour, falling asleep at the end. He awakens after 30 minutes. We watch some TV and I check my end of the workday e-mails, responding to anything pertinent.

6:30ish: Ron gets home from work. We sit and talk for a while and decide on what we want to cook for dinner. Ron spends some time with an alert Caleb.

7:30ish: Ron runs to the store while I give Caleb his bottle of formula as he lies in the sling while I do the dishes (talk about multitasking!).

8:15: Ron gets back from the store and starts cooking (Garlic-Parmesan Penne with Shrimp and Scallops). I nurse Caleb while reading a book.

8:45: Caleb and I join Ron in the kitchen, where we dance Caleb to sleep in the sling to the music of Sinatra. We call Ron’s parents and finish cooking dinner.

9:30ish: Ron and I sit down to eat our candlelit dinner. Caleb wakes up and finishes his bottle.

11:00ish: We finish our dinner and go to bed. Caleb is asleep.

Baby Dedication - February 11, 2007

Caleb's dedication took place this Sunday at our church, at exactly 7 weeks of age. Although Ron and I had dedicated him to God when we found out about his conception, it is customary to bring a newborn child before the church to pray for him and publicly dedicate him to God. It was a special event and Caleb behaved beautifully during the service, looking up wide-awake at the pastor as he was praying for him.

The dedication of the firstborn reaches back to the time of Israel, when God commanded to Moses: "Sanctify to Me every firstborn - the one that first opens the womb in birth - among the Israelites." Jesus was also presented to God 40 days after his birth, according to Jewish law. Today, we present not only our firstborn, but each child. Yet, I feel a particular significance of dedicating to God my firstborn son.

My prayer on this day was one of renewed thanks for my child, and a request for grace to raise this little boy to grow up to be a man who loves and serves God.

Snow Day!

We finally got our first snowfall of the winter! We woke up to a beautiful white world today, so we headed out, all bundled up, into the powdery white stuff to enjoy some winter fun. We took a walk around the neighborhood, observed the white scenery, and laid in the snow in our yard. What fun! I love snow and have been hoping Caleb would get to see snow this first winter of his life. Now he did. Now spring can come.

6 week milestone

We are coming up on the 6 week milestone this Sunday! This week completes my official recovery from childbirth and I’ve been given the OK to start exercising. This is also an important milestone for baby, as this is the week he is said to develop the social smile. :) Indeed, Caleb has smiled at me a couple of times this past week. He has a beautiful smile! It’s an open mouthed smile that begins at his eyes and ends in a big grin. Before now, he only smiled in his sleep from about 2 weeks of age, which was thrilling in and of itself. But now he smiles in response to stimuli from us, which is really wonderful. I will try to capture one of these smiles in a photograph soon.

Caleb is also old enough now to be taken out more and we will start going to places with him more (especially as winter starts coming to an end). I’ve taken a couple of walks with him in our neighborhood in the past weeks, on days when the weather was unusually warm. He also took his very first trip to the grocery store last week; not that he saw much - he slept soundly through it. We took him to see my friends at Monte Carlo Restaurant, and we also revisited the Mexican restaurant. And yesterday, in the bitter cold, I ventured out on my first solo shopping expedition with him to Target, where we picked up several baby items (including a Diaper Champ – about time!) and browsed for a leisurely hour. The trip was very successful and I was so proud of Caleb; he was mommy’s shopping buddy, behaving so well. I think he understands that when we are out, his place is in the car seat, where he’s supposed to stay and not make a fuss. I have high hopes for similar shopping trips in the future. (Funny how ordinary shopping trips have become exciting things to report on!)

I still have to pinch myself sometimes that I have a son, that this little boy is truly mine. It seems that it all happened so quickly – the pregnancy, the birth, the first weeks home. I think that I am still in a daze that this truly happened to us: we made a beautiful child, God blessed us with a son. (Maybe it’s so unbelievable, because we had waited so long to have a child, always planning, but taking our time getting to it.) Now that he is here, we can’t imagine life again without him. He has carved out a place for himself in our family and it’s as if he’s been with us always.

Happy 6 weeks to you, son!